Edmundo Eckart was born in Barcelona in 1935 into a family of German origin. He studied piano with Margarete Fleiter and J. Dotras Villa at the Conservatori Superior de Barcelona, and harmony, counterpoint, composition and instrumentation with Cristòfor Taltabull. He later extended his knowledge of twentieth century music with Carles Guinovart.
For many years he was the organist at the German Parish Catholic Church in Barcelona, for which he wrote many works and developed a series of harmonisations and adaptations for religious brass ensembles.
His musical catalogue is made up of pieces for chamber and symphony formations, for orchestra and for choir, many of which have been performed on various occasions in Spain, Germany, Mexico, the Republic of Moldova, Poland and Holland.
His works have been published by various Catalan publishers and many have been recorded by the Gallo and Ars Armónica record labels.
He has been a member of the Associació Catalana de Compositors since 1992.
He was born in Barcelona in 1963. He pursued all his music studies at the Municipal Music School there, always being awarded the highest grades, and qualifying as a teacher of the piano, advanced music theory, accompaniment, advanced harmony, counterpoint, composition and orchestration.
In 1996 he qualified as a teacher of Music Education, and in the following year as senior teacher of Musicology.
In 1992 he won the prize in the advanced section of orchestration, and in 1993 the prize in the advanced section of composition.
In 1994 he won the second prize in the Autonomous Government of Catalonia's Tenth Competition for Young Composers.
He published '6 estudis per a tenora i tible' (six studies for the Catalan tenor shawm and descant shawm), which are now on the examination syllabus in the Liceo Music School in Barcelona.
The first performance of his work 'Fantasia per a clarinet en Sib i piano' (Fantasy for B-flat clarinet and piano) was given in 1993 in Martorell.
In June 1996 his sardana (Catalan traditional dance) 'L'aplec de Taradell' was a finalist in the First Competition for Sardana Composition in the events held to mark the 50th Aplec de Taradell, and the Cobla Sant Jordi traditional band recorded it on a CD.
To commemorate the 150-year-long history of the tenora, Jordi Figaró and Jordi Vilaprinyó, on the tenora and the piano respectively, recorded the CD 'Passió per la tenora', which includes his work 'Perfils' (Profiles), a piece they perform in various concerts and one that the composer dedicated to them (the work was published by DINSIC Publicacions Musicals, SL in October 2000).
He has been teaching harmony, accompaniment and the language of music at Barcelona's Municipal School of Music since October 1992.
Born in Barcelona in 1957, he studied at the Conservatorio Superior Municipal de Música of his city with Luis Gásser, where obtained the Profesor Superior de Guitarra degree; he was awarded the Honour Price at the Professional Level. He has performed concerts in several cities of Spain and did his international début at the Kammermusiksaal der Philharmonie in Berlin, playing later in Malta, Denmark, Italy and Chile at the I Festival Internacional de Guitarra Chile'90. He was rewarded at the II National Interpretation Contest ONCE'87, holded in Madrid. Interested on the Composition, he has studied with Vicenç Acuña, Lleonard Balada, David Padrós and electroacustic music with Albert Llanas. He also assisted to courses by Hans Zender and Ivan Fedele. He had made works for solo guitar, voice, electroacustic music, ensemble music and orchestra; its published works by Clivis and Dinsic. Important ensembles has given premiéres of his works, The Carnegie Mellon Contemporary Ensemble, Solistes de l'OBC-Quintet de Vent, Quartet de Guitarres de Barcelona, Grup Instrumental de València. He had been rewarded with the Premi Especial of Catalan Composers Asociation at the X Premi Francesc Civil de Composició-Girona’s Town Award 1998 for the woodwind quintet Érebo. Since 1986 is teaching his instrument at the Escola Municipal de Música de Santa Coloma de Gramenet (Barcelona).
Enric Ferrer i Busquets was born in Barcelona in 1958 and has lived in the city of Terrassa since 1991.
He studied piano in the Liceu Higher Conservatory of Music (Barcelona), in the Musical Studies Centre and later with the maestro Albert Attenelle. He studied composition with the maestros Juan José Olives and Josep Soler.
His catalogue comprises over 40 works for various instrumental groups ranging from solo performances to symphonic orchestras with music for the cobla (traditional Catalan brass band) with the occasional foray into band music. Amongst his compositions, vocal music appears throughout the length of his career, employing the words of poets such as Federico García Lorca and Àlex Susanna, and has also collaborated with writers such as Bernat Puigtobella and Antoni Perarnau.. He also composed several incidental pieces such as cantatas, two small-scale operas, Els contes de Sade (Sade’s tales) and Pentsilea (Penthesilea) with librettos by Pau Guix and Feliu Formosa respectively, as well as an opera in three acts entitled El dubte de Leonora (Leonora’s doubt), all of which have been performed. His first recognised work was Peça per a Cobla en Sol menor (Piece for Cobla in G minor), dating back to 1977, although it was not officially performed until 2002 in Barcelona. Nevertheless, we can say that nearly all his later work has been performed regularly in concert halls in Spain and all over the world, in the Teatre Lliure in Barcelona, the Palau de la Música in Valencia, in Majorca, Andorra, in the International Festival of Rosario (Argentina) and in Olomuc (Czech Republic), amongst others.
Enric Ferrer is the director of the Tactum Chamber Group and is specialised in performing contemporary music, having carried out several tours around the Spanish state.
Some of his compositions have been recorded by the Discmedi, Picap, VVM and La Ma de Guido labels.
Clivis Publicacions started including the works of Enric Ferrer in its publishing catalogue in 2009.
Francisco Fleta Polo was born in 1931 in Barcelona. He attended the Barcelona Conservatory for Advanced Studies in Music where he obtained an advanced certificate in the Violin, Viola and Trumpet qualifications and trained as a Composer and Conductor.
He played the viola in the Symphonic orchestras of the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona’s opera house (1961-64), RTVE, the Spanish state broadcasting company, (Madrid 1965-69) and the City of Barcelona (since 1970). He was selected for the post of Viola Professor at the Barcelona Conservatory for advanced studies in music in a national eliminatory exam.
Hi has a very wide catalogue of works for several instruments and instrumental ensembles which have played by several generations of students in the course of their music studies. These works were written with his students in mind. He has also composed works for orchestra including four symphonies; the second and the third were first played in public by the Barcelona Symphonic orchestra and the fourth by the Barcelona Municipal Band. His Sonata for the Viola op.69 was chosen to be played at the International Viola Congress in Illinois (USA). For his students he has designed a highly successful practical course for the Viola and Violin. Most of his works are edited by this company (Clivis Publicacions).
His music is rich in counterpoint and timbre effects which give it a very unique air of genius.
Fruit of his extensive academic training, and faithful to his unique musical sensibilities, musical maestro Josep Garcia Gago (Bembibre del Bierzo (León), 1921 – Barcelona, 1999) left us with a whole series of his musical works written for piano, chamber orchestra, instrumental ensembles and choir.
Undoubtedly the most widely-known piece is the Suite of Chamber, which reveals his extraordinary command of both the science and art of harmony and counterpoint, –not for nothing was he professor of these subjects for over thirty years at the Conservatori Superior Municipal de Barcelona. His Tratado de contrapunto (Treatise on Counterpoint) has been used in classrooms for over 30 years.
Xavier Gols i Soler (Tarragona, 1902-1938) started learning the piano and violin from his father, a composer and orchestra conductor. After winning the newly-established Pau Casals scholarship in 1927, he moved to Barcelona to further his piano studies with Blanca Selva and his composition studies with Baltasar Samper. Some of his most notable compositions include Quintet en re menor (1934) for strings and piano, De les terres altes (1936) for piano, Quatre impressions per a piano (1936), and Tres preludis rurals (1937) for piano and chamber orchestra, as well as the constant production throughout his life of songs for voice and piano.